Any Way You Want It
Journey · Departure (Bonus Track Version)
Fun rock energy with a spiritually thin center
What do these signals mean?
- Edifying: Points the heart toward God, truth, hope, or love.
- Worth Weighing: Real good and real concern together. Test it before you take it in.
- Take Caution: Leans toward what could dull or mislead. Approach carefully.
- Consider Avoiding: Celebrates what Scripture warns against. Little here builds up.
Weighed against Scripture
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;”
The song frames love almost entirely around pleasure and personal satisfaction. Paul's description of love as patient, kind, and not self-seeking offers a very different center of gravity.
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Paul's call to fix the mind on whatever is true, honorable, and pure is a useful lens here. The song is not actively corrupting, but it does not point the mind anywhere particularly noble either.
This is a high-energy classic rock anthem about a relationship defined largely by physical enjoyment and total accommodation to desire. The narrator discovers good love after loneliness, which is a genuinely human thing, but the song's frame for love is almost entirely about what feels good and what the other person will do. There is real joy here, but it is joy pointed inward and downward rather than outward or upward. As entertainment it is mostly harmless; as a picture of love it is pretty thin.
No profanity or explicit language, but the repeated emphasis on physical intimacy and all-night encounters carries a suggestive undercurrent.
The song is about romantic and physical satisfaction with no spiritual dimension whatsoever. It neither reaches toward nor pushes against anything transcendent.
Classic arena rock meant to energize and celebrate pleasure and romantic chemistry. The intent is fun and celebratory, not malicious, but also not particularly nourishing.
When you think about the kind of love this song is celebrating, does it line up with what you actually want love to look like in your life?